How long can your son miss chunks of school before the police or the truant officer turn up on your doorstep? I am sorry you had such high hopes for this aide. I still don't really get how anyone could think that it wasn't appropriate to go to 5th grade maths after 4th grade. Seems like the logical progression after all.
We have no problem in pulling my son out of school early. He attends the required number of hours per state law. Turns out that in my state, that number is surprisingly low.
I document everything that we are doing. So, if anyone ever asked (and no one has), I've got all of our lessons documented.
Before this conversation, we had my son tested for 2E issues. The tester is the same tester who did my son's IQ test last year. I wanted the tester to come to school to present her results last year but the school wouldn't see her. Once we raised the 2E issue at school, the school is now interested in having the tester come in. I just met with her last week and she is really upset about the whole state of things at our school. She's been working with gifted and 2E kids for 20 years and said this has been one of the worst environments she has seen (but not THE worst - she has seen even more horrible situations). She is a licensed clinical psychologist and has completely supported our choice to partially homeschool and has written this up in documents to give to the school. (In fact, she recommends 100% homeschool but my son is not interested in that.) So, fortunately, we've got everything documented and have an expert on our side. Whew!
Just to add, I know why the principal wouldn't allow my son to progress to 5th grade math. He was too "visible" with this acceleration. Other families were starting to ask about their own children and if they could be accelerated. It was too much for the principal so she wanted to just keep my son in his class. The principal admitted to me that she doesn't know what gifted really is and she can't differentiate between "high achiever" and "gifted".
